“We know that Arsenal are a very technical team,” said N'Zoni. “They play good football, but when you start kicking them a little bit, it gets a little bit harder for them. They don’t like that, we know that.

“It’s not a surprise they were moaning because they have plenty of technical players.”

While Stoke were resolute, it would be wrong to say they won by booting Arsenal off the pitch, despite the Gunners’ protestations.

Charlie Adam deserved to be punished for his sneaky stamp on Giroud, who was also caught by Glenn Whelan, and the Scotland midfielder connected with Mikel Arteta with his right boot.

Yet referee Mike Jones booked just three Potters players and one of those, Peter Crouch, was for dissent.

N'Zonzi made no apology for Stoke’s physical approach, saying it is up to Arsenal to cope with it.

“Yes, this is how Premier League football is,” said the Frenchman . “It’s really good, it’s really strong.

“If they don’t like it, we don’t care. We will keep on doing it, being strong and trying to be as good as we can be on the ball.

“We played good football against a good team, which shows we can play football.”

Stoke also won because they created more than Arsenal, who were as toothless as a 90-year-old without their dentures.

They did not work Asmir Begovic and Lukas Podolski sliced wide from a decent opening before substitute Yaya Sanogo blazed over at the death.

Wojciech Szczesny was much busier, producing a fine fingertip save to deny the excellent Crouch, and the Pole was powerless to keep out Jonathan Walters’ 76th-minute penalty.

While Arsene Wenger moaned about the award of the spot-kick for handball against Laurent Koscielny, he admitted Arsenal lost because they were poor up front.

Physical: Stoke took the game to Arsenal (Photo: Laurence Griffiths)

But the defiant Gunners boss was quick to reject talk that the loss would herald a collapse in their season.

The Frenchman claims it is a myth that Arsenal fall apart in March and pointed to this time last season when they went unbeaten in their final 11 games to qualify for the Champions League.

“I would say look at our results at the crucial point in the season and you would be surprised,” he said indignantly.

“Somebody says something that is not checked and everyone repeats it and it becomes an opinion, even if the facts don’t show it. Our end of season has always been very strong.”

It will need to be very strong to win the title and after holding a five-point lead in December, Arsenal have slipped to third, four points behind leaders Chelsea.

“We cannot say it will be easy,” he said. “It will be difficult, but I expected Chelsea to win at Fulham.

“I think away from home we have been very strong, but here and at Liverpool we were not at the races.”

Arsenal must improve and fast if they do not want to finish also rans.